Evolutionary Ecology
Evolutionary Ecology | Behavioural Ecology | Reproductive strategies | Host-parasite systems | Tropical Ecol & Evol | Conservation | Study Sites
Evolutionary Ecology as a research field
Evolutionary Ecology is the name of the research field that aims to understand the way in which the evolutionary history of populations or species interacts with the ecological background against which they have evolved, and against which they currently play out the details of their lives. It is a field that aims to understand variation at the level of individuals, populations, or species, in those traits that are ecologically important, and the factors that contribute to patterns of diversity and assemblages of species.
The EGI has a distinguished history in the development of the field of Evolutionary Ecology; Robert MacArthur was a visiting postdoc in the late 1950s, and David Lack's books from the 1960s (Population Studies of Birds in 1966, and Ecological Adaptations for Breeding in Birds in 1968) arguably determined the course of research in this field for decades, at least as far as those working on birds were concerned. Much of the research on population biology at the EGI, which has provided the impetus for the maintenance of long-term study populations of tits, swans and seabirds has been guided by this research tradition, with important work in the development of life history biology being carried out on these populations.
Current Work
Much of our current work could be classified as evolutionary ecology: for example, work on host-parasite systems and tropical ecology falls squarely within this area, and there are strong elements of evolutionary ecology in the study of both reproductive strategies and the field of behavioural ecology.
Our current work on wild populations of birds involves the application of four main approaches, often simultaneously:
First, we employ information garnered from long-term pedigrees together with the tools of quantitative genetics to understand the selective forces acting on traits and the important contributors to variation within populations: for example, this approach is taken with work on the causes and consequences of inbreeding, and on variation in basal metabolic rate and its links with rates of ageing.
Second, we use field observations and experiments to test hypotheses about causality underlying selection on variation in natural populations. A recently finished set of experiments addressed the consequences of sex ratio variation for fitness (see figure below), and a recently started set of experiments addresses the interaction between habitat quality and individual phenotype in causing structuring within populations.
Third, we take a developmental approach towards understanding evolutionary change. Here the main focus is on the role of the parental effects for offspring development and to what extent they allow rapid and flexible adjustment of offspring phenotype under fluctuating environmental conditions.
Fourth, we are increasingly developing research programs in spatial ecology using GIS approaches to describe the environment, and understand the influence of the environment on individuals (See Teddy Wilkin, Amy Hinks and Matt Wood).
Lastly, we use genetic markers to extract information about sex, parentage, relatedness and, increasingly, variation at candidate genes, and relate this to phenotypic and environmental variation (See Sarah Knowles and Miriam Liedvogel), and to individual reproductive strategies (See Kris Jones and Jo Chapman).
Collaborations
Our main current external collaborators are:
Anne Charmantier (Montpellier)
Dany Garant (Sherbrooke, Canada)
Loeske Kruuk (Edinburgh)
Juha Merilä (Helsinki)
Mark Rees (Sheffield)
Stuart West (Edinburgh)
